Article by Cameron Taylor, Maintenance Steward and Website Editor.

News has already started to spread, but the Union was notified this week that OSHA’s initial investigations (there’s also a newly-launched investigation, but more on that later) finally wrapped up. During the course of their investigation, which mostly dealt with Maintenance-related issues, they found a number of violations, and as the title says, issued proposed citations totaling $245,893. USPS will certainly attempt to dispute these citations to lower the amount, but the end result will still be a hefty fine plus mandatory abatement of the cited safety violations.

Read the entire letter from OSHA here, which is a copy of what’s currently posted outside the MDO’s office near the cafeteria at the Citygate P&DC. It goes into a lot of detail about each citation, what the violations were, and so on.

As can be seen in the screenshot above, there were quite a few issues. They included lack of “lock out tag out” (i.e. making sure machines are safely de-energized prior to working on them), lack of training, lack of safety guarding, unsafe practices (e.g. in the Battery Room), etc.

The investigation itself was a mess from beginning to end, with Management doing and saying all the wrong things at every step of the way.

A New Investigation

I mentioned a new OSHA investigation at the beginning of this article, so I’ll touch on that a bit. Once again, it’s a Maintenance-related investigation, and this time it appears to be involving the “Buffers” in TMS. A different OSHA agent has been assigned to this investigation, and she was witnessed already telling Management that they’ll be receiving citations upon the conclusion of this investigation. She said that on her very first visit to Citygate, so there’s bound to be some interesting developments as that investigation unfolds. In the meantime, I’ll be sure to update everyone as important information about that comes out.

Other Complaints

That said, there have been other complaints filed recently at Citygate that don’t appear to have led into full-on investigations (that we’re aware of). You may have seen the postings at the turn-stiles entering the building, or outside the MDO’s office. They included a complaint, seemingly from Mail Handlers, about lack of protective gloves and furnished first aid kits around the building. Another complaint was about emergency preparedness, or rather the lack thereof, for various sheltering/evacuation events. And a third complaint was yet another about Maintenance safety.

An Eye for Safety

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of problems at every facility, and some more urgently need addressed than others. Every member is a fundamentally important part of this process. Addressing safety concerns starts with verbally notifying Management and/or submitting a PS 1767, Report of Hazard, Unsafe Condition or Practice. If that doesn’t resolve it, request a steward and have them file an Article 14 Safety and Health grievance. And if it’s serious enough, and/or Management is dragging their feet on the grievance, employees also have the right to file OSHA complaints.

Additionally, any employee that raises their concerns to Management in any of the above methods, or almost any other method, are protected from retaliation by whistleblower protection laws. Retaliation and violations of whistleblower protection laws can also be reported to OSHA, where they can order discipline to be expunged, issue citations, demand abatements, etc. If that necessity arises, it’s also best that you request a steward and let them know what’s going on.

That said, I’ll be writing a more thorough article focusing exclusively on reporting safety concerns, including OSHA complaints. Look out for that soon.

In Solidarity,
Cameron Taylor